Each generation produces at least one organist who sets out to make the instrument acceptable to a new audience through a combination of outstanding technique, distinctive programming and a carefully manicured personality. The latest is Kateřina Chroboková, who goes under the moniker Katt, and whose Unique Selling Point is glamour; the cover photo shows more leg than is usual at an organ console.

In aural-only mode, Katt comes across as a remarkably strait-laced organist, delivering Bach’s BWV565 Toccata with beautifully crisp articulation and a minimum of effect, especially in a fugue where echo effects are decidedly subtle. An inexplicably truncated BWV538 Toccata shows a similar clarity of touch and absence of gesture. Messiaen and Pärt come across similarly devoid of effect or gesture, although they are perhaps more earthy than spiritual, and at times sound a little hard-edged and sour on this substantial 1953 Luxemburg Klais.

Katt’s personality emerges in her own three works on the disc. Never attempting to hide their improvisatory origins, and aiming for a raw spiritual intensity – something emphasised by occasional tinkling bells – two of these (Bogorodice Djevo and Variations on Veni Sancte Spiritus) take on a strangely theatrical quality when Katt starts to vocalise. Texts are included in the booklet (which also is notable for the incomprehensibility of its translated notes) but these do not seem part of the performances. Instead, Katt moans, whispers, roars, caresses and generally provides an unearthly accompaniment to some vivid organ colour.